Mrp Alert

Yes we did. The crew and hard product were excellent. I just boarded FRA-PEK. If I had 50k LH miles handy, I totally would have upgraded this A380 segment to first.

dr88

Has anyone received a reply back from either DOT or AA regarding the decision being outside the timeframe?

chunky649

I just completed my trip and got just under 25K miles. Does that sound right? I have no status with AA. (DCA-ORD-PEK-DFW-DCA)

SJC AA

You should get about 23,000 for the flights plus 3000 for the "Currency Promo".

chunky649

Close enough... :-) (I rounded off quite a bit when I added up all my flights)

Anyway , wanted to share my experience. I missed my return flight from Beijing. I called the China sales line and nobody (english option) answered for 30 minutes after holding. I ended up calling the USA number, and the first agent was not helpful. He kept insisting that I wanted to change my flight, so every option was going to cost me way over $1000. He also put me on hold for 5-10 minutes every time I suggested something. Got frustrated after 30 minutes of going nowhere, as asked for a supervisor. He was much more sympathetic. I ended up taking the next day's flight for $400 change fee. He did note that my fare was "very special", and this was the best he could've done for me. I get much better service from Delta (I miss a lot of flights...including paid and award international flights, and they always accommodated me for free, including creative routings... but then again, I've been DIA/PLT for the longest time)

keitherson

Stop missing flights, jesus. The fact that you habitually miss flights and then expect accommodation is ridiculous. Not to mention on mistake fares and award tickets. Delta turns a blind eye to elite customers but if there's more people like you this unspoken policy is gonna go poof.

dr88

Why did you miss your flight?

keitherson

Because he wanted a "creative routing for free"

Oh hi diamond desk, I missed my DTW-CDG flight can you put me on a codeshare through ICN and make sure I earn full miles for it?

SJC AA

Lame.

dr88

I was genuinely interested in the reason for the missed flight, but I doubt he'll respond since its quite clear what his intentions are. Lack of personal accountability makes my blood boil.

chunky649

Are you kidding me Keitherson and Dr88? Sitting in front of you computer attacking people all night?! I just got home yesterday morning, went to work, and didn't respond to your comment immediately at ~9pm, so I have ill intentions?!

I missed my flight because I took the local airport express bus instead of the reliable airport express train. It was heavy traffic (who would've thought on a saturday afternoon), and we got stuck behind a "Learner bus" in the bus lane. By the time I figured out I won't make my flight, I did not have enough local currency to get off and catch a taxi, plus I didn't know where I was relative to the airport anymore... I arrived at the check-in desk ~3:45pm for my 4:25pm flight, and all the AA check-in and sales agents were already gone. (Sign says they are only there until 2:30pm).

I made the comment that "I missed a lot of flights". Maybe I should qualify. I missed ~5 flights in the last 10 years. To me, that is a lot. None of them intentionally. 1 of them was with United. The rest were with Delta. This one makes ~#6.

sbrower

Your explanation sounds fine, and I appreciate your coming back and providing that. However, in the last 35 years of flying (over 2,000 flights) I have missed ONE flight, and that was a short local flight, and (pre-TSA) I routinely planned to arrive at the airport 30 minutes before my plane.

chunky649

Sbrower, that is an impressive record. In my short experience as a human being, I've observed that luck often have something to do with it. I've only been on a little over 500 flights (~12 years), but over 20 countries, and usually have to deal with other travel companions that I cannot control. I also try to get through security 30-60 minutes before my boarding-in time. Other than my last 2 (both in China), each of my missed flights were in a different country, half of which weren't my fault. I.e., my last missed flight was due to a flight cancellation. I was conservative to booked an afternoon flight CAN-PVG. It got delayed ~4 hours, got on the plane, sat for another 2-3, then the flight was cancelled at 12:30am. Missed my PVG-SEA-DTW flight the next day simply because the first available CAN-PVG flight doesn't get there early enough. Delta was nice enough to put me on the direct PVG-DTW later that afternoon. It may be because I have an expensive business class ticket, or the fact that the cancelled flight was a skyteam flight (China Southern or Eastern...I forget). I didn't even care if they gave me the right amount of miles. I was just glad to get home and not pay a large penalty. I wasn't bragging in my original post above, as some others insinuated. Maybe they read my statement "including creative routing" to mean that I was able to scheme more miles that way. What I meant was that Delta just didn't try to find availability on the next same routing, but worked with me to find an efficient way to my destination.


Anyway, to stay on topic, some notes that may be useful to people's upcoming trips:

DCA is right on the subway line. You can convenient take the subway into DC for some sightseeing.
The Admiral club is available for departure and arrival. Good for relaxing and shower.
PEK:
The Cathy Pacific lounge (Gate E20) does not have a shower, but the toliet booth is completely enclosed, has a sink, is big and clean enough for one to strip down and towel off before putting on clean clothes. There is a decent spread of cantonese food (stir fry beef, fried rice, XO sauce (spicy) noodles), congee, a brothy soup, standard hard liquors, wines, beer, soda.
The check-in desk at PEK is Terminal 3, area B. There is a separate line for business/first class passenger. The process is relatively quick, but you do need to take the shuttle train to your gate.
In recent experience at PEK (I flew through there 5 times in the last month and a half). In all but the last departing flight, they wanted to look at all my batteries, my DSLR, lenses, tablet, and umbrella separately.
In the PEK-DFW flight, there was a secondary inspection. It was a waste of time. They opened your bag and took a half-second look without even touching anything. You're going to get all the bottled water and drinks you need on the flight, but if you want to sneak on a bottled drink, just put it deep in your bag and they won't notice it. I'm sure they have this secondary check for liquids because the American TSA insist.
AA was very quick to post my miles (within a day), but just in case, you should always keep your boarding pass.
The AA China number is: 400-8187-3333 (option 2 for English)
There are 2 Cousin's BBQ in DFW (Terminal D and B). For those who crave Texas BBQ. :-)

ninegoodthings

Just an acknowledgement from DOT. I made a second complaint based on the non-response.

moondog

The sidebar in this thread accusing you of engaging in nefarious acts has perplexed me (a few days ago, I tried looking toward the history for clues, but was still perplexed).

As a person who has also missed ~5 flights (well, my most recent one was an accidental booking: NKG-SZX instead of NNG-SZX... not sure this counts) during the course of the past ~10 years, the costs (both financial and in terms of lost time) never fail to make me unhappy (i.e. I would never intentionally miss a flight). But, I also don't like showing up at the airport 3 hours early just to play it "safe" (if you spread my ~$1000 loss over ~2000 flights, I come out on top).